The Metallic Green Wild Woods
Ronan Trotter
All the leaves fell off of the trees in one swift action. An entire forest of trees, de-leaved. The bright mid-day sun lit the forest to a previously unfound beauty. There wouldn’t have been a sound when it happened, but the magnitude of trees that experienced this phenomenon caused a weird thunderous crack across the almost 200 mile wide forest. A sonic boom of leaves cascading and flailing into the air, plummeting to the ground for their first and last time. The boom the leaves created sent themselves into the air violently, dancing across the soundwaves they created. The leaves yelled into the sky as they pranced and slammed into one another, feeling the aftereffects of the rumbling boom and feeling the combined forces of gravity and a new breeze that came in from behind the sandy rocks, swirled-rock mountains, the creeks of crystal water, and the through the gaps between branches which held the leaves all their lives.
The forest was emerald, metallic, and a translucent green and had been since it sprouted from the red and sandy soil eons ago. Even during the winter the trees and their leaves never changed from their brilliantly powerful color. Nothing – the climate, seasons, near apocalypses, wars, meteor showers, or Mother Nature itself – could do anything to disrupt the trees’ tranquil power of balance and calm. The forest surpassed Mother Nature in potential and function. The forest had roots that traveled to the planet’s core and passed it, never needing water or nutrients to thrive. The forest blossomed and excelled alone on the harmony it created all on its own. The trees were all 400 feet tall or taller, standing spectacularly against all other aspects of nature. The forest, untouched by humans or animals, was the purest essence of peace and order. Even Mother Nature could not accomplish this.
The leaves twirled in the air, celebrating as they fell to their deaths. Their rich and bright green color sparkled happily in the sun’s ever-loving light. With each foot the leaves got closer to the burgundy dirt, the branches of the trees shrunk, crackled, and painfully darkened. Chunks of tree imploded with each leaf that finally, softly, layed on top of the comforting dark red, life bringing soil. Within minutes, the last leaf floated atop the dirt and its brother and sisters. They all cheered bittersweetly in silence. The breeze was nonexistent, there was no sound any longer stretching or vibrating throughout the forest’s magnificent 200 mile radius.
When all the bare trees twisted and were seemingly dead and the leaves fully relaxed into the ground, a white light enveloped everything. Extending far past the forest, far past the mountains, far past the civilizations of chaos, far past the planet’s atmosphere. The white light had a greenish tint to it. The essence of the leaves smiled as everything was covered. Then, an explosion so quiet, imploded the planet into dispersing space dust. The forest’s calm finally cracked open.
